krakblog

A Bite?

Well, Nick was out of town last week for work. He's been doing a lot of that since starting his job at Spawar - he travels to the East Coast or up to China Lake (literally in the middle of nowhere in the CA desert) at least once a month, sometimes more. And while we didn't really expect him to be gone so much in a non-deployable billet, he has had the fortune of almost always traveling to places where friends of ours reside. So it was only fitting that his trip last week, although it did not take him to either of the aforementioned places, DID send him to St. Louis, where our very very best and most favorite nephew (also, coincidentally, our only nephew) lives.

So despite the "work" that he had to do while there, Nick got to spend some quality time with the coolest person under 3 that he knows. Oh yeah, and Braydan's mom and dad, Jessi and Matt. Them too. The adult people. Nick brought back a slew of pictures and video and stories to match. I'll admit it - I'm totally jealous that I couldn't be there too. We may just be a 4-hour flight away from everyone, but sometimes those flights don't happen as frequently as we'd like, and with almost all of our extended family being back in the midwest, it can really feel like we're missing out on peoples' lives. Watching the video of Braydan, I'm amazed at what a little man he's becoming, and I feel pangs of guilt that we can't be there more often. Jessi, however, is incredible at keeping Nick and me in his life - pointing us out in pictures, saying our names, putting him on the phone to talk to us, and not letting us become some vague notion of an aunt and uncle living out in some faraway place.

I had sent a little gift for the little guy with Nick: a fireman-themed fleece blanket that I had made (I have to give my mom the credit, though, for getting the fleece pieces and sending them out to me). According to the bald one, Braydan pulled it out of Nick's suitcase and starting straightening it out on the floor. Does this mean that he got uncle Nick's neatfreak gene?!

The two boys also shared an ice cream bar. There's also video of this moment, so I can personally attest to the extreme adorable factor involved in Braydan standing next to Nick asking for "a bite?" and the two of them alternating bites of the bar until it was gone ... each time, Bray asking for "a bite?" in the same way. Awwwww!

Aaaaand one more for good measure:

(Nick swears that Braydan decided to "lounge" on him like this on his own ... )